Looking at Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif”

Throughout Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” Maggie represents a very particular reality in Twyla and Roberta’s moral considerations: As kids, because she is deaf and mute, they ridicule her, seeing no immediate negative ramifications for themselves. Later, they exclude her in follow-up conversations about that behavior, and they seek neither justice nor reconciliation. I contend that this empathic failure of ethics on behalf of Twyla and Roberta sheds light on more fundamental issues of who can express themselves within hierarchies based in power and oppression.

Covert Manipulation in “On Monday of Last Week”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short story, “On Monday of Last Week,” presents a somber image of power struggles between an anxious husband, Neil, his largely absent wife, Tracy, and their emotionally vulnerable babysitter, Kamara. In Kamara’s long adjustment to American life, she falls victim to her sexual and unpredictable employer’s manipulation, and must grapple with the consequences.

What does egalitarianism mean, in the context of three different types of capital?

In Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital,” he presents a clear extrapolation of the idea of capital, as originally presented by Marx and Engels. Rather than merely mentioning capital as a sort of single entity, which is the product of labor, reaped by the bourgeois capitalists, instead of the wage laborers, Bourdieu sees capital as much more multi-faceted. Indeed, the existence of economic capital—more or less identical to Marx and Engels’ ideations—is coupled with that of social capital and cultural capital, the latter of which may be divided into that which is embodied, objectified, and institutionalized. While this segregation of capital is in some ways liberating and enlightening, it is also grave and damning. When solely economic capital is considered, classism and inequality can be rather easily ameliorated with a reasonable strategy of regulation. Taxes and wealth (re)distribution can often greatly assist those clamoring for a more egalitarian society. However, because cultural and social capital hold inherent good, separate from any extraneous monetary benefit, and because they are often connotated with virtue, the task of forming an egalitarian society becomes much more challenging.

The missing ingredient in Roland Barthes’ “The Death of the Author”

In “The Death of the Author,” Roland Barthes attempts to shift the responsibility for the construction of meaning within literary works from the author to the reader herself. This should be rather clear from the title of the piece, and it’s justified by his elegant contention, “The true locus of writing is reading” (5). This is because of the reader’s need to synthesize the various cultural spaces and contexts in which the given texts are based, as well as the prerogative of the reader to unify the “multiplicity” of the given texts (6). Such an argument makes clear that the meaning of a piece comes from those who soak it in. It’s not just inherent in the piece itself, as something toward which every reader may strive; it’s in the actual reading itself.

Adherence to virtue within the bourgeoisie of “The Christmas Tree and a Wedding”

In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx makes clear a particular argument regarding the status of the bourgeoisie: “The modern bourgeois society” has further stratified social classes in the contemporary world (34), and it must continue to modernize “the instruments of production,” so as to maintain control over the rest of the world—namely, the proletariat, the working people (38). This contention places at its core the reality of modern production, and advancements in industry. However, even at its core, the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is rather simple. Whereas the proletariat creates capital, in the process of production, it is composed of wage-labourers, whom the bourgeoisie, their bosses, pay the bare minimum to survive and remain at their job (54-5). Thus, the bourgeoisie class maintains its power from the capital produced by those subservient to them (55).